LONG TOUR

Hokitika Guardian, 19 January 1932, Page 8

LONG TOUR

NEW ZEALANDER'S ADVENTURES. CANOE GOES WITH HIM. SYDNEY, January 7. A strange figure in the streets of Melbourne during the week-end was Mr Stanley Rose, a New Zealander, who was completing a. tour of 5000 miles by land and water in New South Walos, South Australia, and Victoria, He waa clad only in. singlet and shorts and pushed before him a 'carnoe mounted on cycle '.wheels. People stared at him as he made ms way through the busy .streets until he arrived at the home of a friend where he is staying until he sets out for Tasmania. He had a long and trying journey from Adelaide, for he found that there was little water on which he could travel, and his tanned skin, hard and weather-beaten, gave some indications of the hardships he must have endured on the hard, dusty roads.

Mr Rose is a native of England, but went to New Zealand about- five years ago. He set out on big long journey about eighteen months ago, and says that he travelled about 3000 miles in the Dominion before coming to Australia. Travel was easier in the Dominion because of the many waterways and the more temperate climate. He is never without his rod and bis gun, and with the aid of these is able to subsist. He has traversed in big canoe most of the important rivers in New South Wales and South Australia, pushing his canoe' overland when water transport is not available. One long walk wae from Newcastle to Manilla, in New South Wales, a distance of about 220 miles. Then he went by way of various rivors to tloolwa, in South Australia. From ‘Goohva he walked to Adelaide.

This New Zealander is light-heart-ed, and is disinclined to talk of his adventures, which, he says, “are nothing.” Several times while navigating Now South Wales rivers he was caught by flood waters and upset, but bo was always able to extricate himself from such difficulties. He found the trip a “bit monotonous,” but it was not the monotony of being alone in tin* bush that troubled him. Hits appearance always o|r<>used a great deal of curiosity, and be be-

came weary of explaining to everyone the nature of big travels—the wliys and wherefores. Anyway, be is never quite alone, for hjs companion has always been a magpie which perches on the prow of the canoe. The' canoe weighs COIb. and is 12ft. long. The kit and gear in the canoe weigh about 2001 b.